Woman With Alopecia Says She'd Cry If Her Hair Grew Back, Because She Loves Who She Is Now

"I realize I just overcame the hardest thing I've ever dealt with, [and] I think I can overcome anything now."

In their video series with StyleLikeU, Allure magazine tackles various topics such as aging, beauty myths, learning to love the post-pregnancy body, and muscles, among others. In their most recent episode, the video highlights Nell Sanders, a woman with
alopecia, a common auto-immune skin disease that causes people to lose hair on various parts of the body.

In the video, Sanders talks about her experiences with the disease, and how she overcame her insecurities.

"If my hair grew back, I would cry, and then shave it off," Sanders says at the start of the video.

Sanders goes on to explain that she got alopecia when she was 18-months old. Eventually, after losing all of her hair, she remembers thinking about how much her life would change. And growing up, she felt a lot of anxiety as a result of her disease.

"I really hid a lot of my identity because I was actually hiding a huge component of myself under hats and wigs," she says.

After attending a conference for people with alopecia, Sanders decided she would stop wearing her wigs, making a pact with some other attendees to not wear their wig one day.

"A bunch of bald kids and I went bowling, and I felt completely free," Sanders explains. "And then once I got that taste of freedom, I was like, 'that's it, I'm done.' "

After finding her confidence, Sanders says that her world shifted, and her perspective on life changed.

"I realize I just overcame the hardest thing I've ever dealt with, [and] I think I can overcome anything now."

"What I did with my alopecia was actually turn this poison, this really negative thing on my head, to this extremely positive thing that is now, I would consider, the best thing that's ever happened to me."